Are they stylish? Are they expensive? Are they even worth it? These are three of many questions that arise when someone is seen wearing $500+ sneakers. Sneakerhead culture can be described as the love for buying, trading and selling popular sneakers. Some that call themselves sneakerheads only care about the resale price while others genuinely make connections and love styling their shoes. 

While looking for shoes, a big deal breaker for sneakerheads is the price. The price of sneakers often reflects how popular or how rare shoes are. Although the cost of sneakers has soared in recent years, most people have a limit to how much they are willing to spend for a pair of shoes to be worth it.

“[I would pay] $700 at most,” Summer Cherry (10) said. “If you’re going over $700, it’s just too much.”

Other than the price, sneakerheads have many factors that they consider when buying a pair of shoes. If a shoe is not up to their fashion standards, a real sneakerhead would not be caught buying it because shoes are essential to creating the ideal outfit that expresses their personality.

“I envision myself wearing the shoes,” Mustafa Alabsawi (12) said. “To stand out, you need a nice pair of shoes to go with your outfit; you know the outfit is not complete without a good pair of shoes.”

A true sneakerhead notices everyone’s shoes as soon as they walk into a room. To them, shoes tell a lot about someone’s personality. Shoes are not just an accessory; they’re a part of how they want to be viewed. 

“Wearing sneakers is not just about putting shoes on your feet; it’s about how you wear them,” Alabsawi said.

Jordans have been one of the most significant shoes in sneakerhead culture, dating back to when the Jordan 1s first were released in 1985 at the end of Michael Jordan’s rookie year. 

“[Shoes] show who they are,” Mahdi Hamade (10) said. “If you see someone wearing Jordans you can tell that they know shoes.” 

Since Jordans have become so mainstream, when a sneakerhead sees someone wearing a notable pair of sneakers like Jordans, many questions and opinions spark in a sneakerhead’s mind. Are they a hypebeast, or do they actually care about their sneakers? Hypebeasts are people described as only caring about the resale price of shoes, disregarding the significance of the shoes. 

“[To buy sneakers just to sell them is] completely unnecessary. The whole point of a shoe is to wear them out,” Alabsawi said. “Hypebeasts have driven the prices [of shoes] way up. They’ve ruined sneaker culture.”